Game On: Obama vs. McCain
Howard Salter
May 22, 2008
Tuesday night, Senator Barack Obama (D-IL) added an adjective to his name: "presumptive nominee for president."
By capturing the Oregon primary, Obama has now garnered a majority of pledged delegates for the Democratic Party´s nomination. It is expected that enough super delegates will push him over the top and officially nominate him at the party´s convention in Colorado in August, thus providing him a shorter adjective – minus the "presumptive."
With Obama on one side of the ring, his fellow "presumptive" partner, Senator John McCain (R-AZ), is on the other. These two candidates will ensure many things between now and November: One, a sitting Member of Congress will be elected president for the first time since 1960; our new president will either have been born on foreign soil (McCain was born in Panama, where his father was in the military) or have a father who was born in Kenya; and, they will certainly look at global cooperative issues and foreign policy much different than those pronounced by then-Governor George W. Bush when he ran for president in 2000.
Strange as it may seem, eight years ago Bush´s foreign policy plans hinged on building a stronger economic and political relationship with Latin America, especially Mexico, and reducing U.S. involvement in small-scale military engagements in general, and "nation building" in particular. When he took office 2001, he inherited a nation at peace, with a record budget surplus.
When Obama or McCain takes the oath of office next January, the new president will inherit a major to-do list. They – like Richard Nixon -- will take office on Day One with our nation at war. They will contend with America´s standing around the world in decline, questions about our use of torture, genocide in Darfur, fraying relations with international institutions and insufficient efforts to halt nuclear proliferation.
DIPLOMACY:
The stark differences in this area came to the forefront in recent days between Senators Obama and McCain. Obama has consistently said, "We need to rediscover the power of diplomacy. So I said very early on in this campaign that I will meet not just with our friends but with our enemies, not just the leaders I like, but leaders I don't."
This stance, one well thought out and needed during turbulent times, was brought into the midst of the campaign, not by McCain or even Obama…but President Bush, who last Thursday at the Israeli Knesset in Jerusalem, proclaimed: "Some seem to believe that we should negotiate with the terrorists and radicals, as if some ingenious argument will persuade them." After a reference to Nazi tanks rolling into Poland, the president continued: "We have an obligation to call this what it is - the false comfort of appeasement."
McCain jumped on Bush´s comments, and called out Obama on Friday. McCain questioned why Obama would ever consider meeting with Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
"I have some news for Senator Obama: Talking, not even with soaring rhetoric, in unconditional meetings with the man who calls Israel a 'stinking corpse' and arms terrorists who kill Americans will not convince Iran to give up its nuclear program. It is reckless to suggest that unconditional meetings will advance our interests.
"It would be a wonderful thing if we lived in a world where we don't have enemies. But that is not the world we live in, and until Senator Obama understands that reality, the American people have every reason to doubt whether he has the strength, judgment and determination to keep us safe," he added.
Obama fired back. "If George Bush and John McCain want to have a debate about protecting the United States of America, that is a debate that I'm happy to have anytime, anyplace, and that is a debate I will win because George Bush and John McCain have a lot to answer for."
Obama continued with a critique of Bush's foreign policy record, in an effort to attach his opponent McCain to several years of failed foreign policy. His list of grievances included a war fought on the premise of weapons of mass destruction that were never found, the failure to capture Osama bin Laden and turning Iran into the "greatest beneficiary" of the Iraq war. He said McCain will "need to answer" for a strengthened al-Qaeda leadership, Hamas's control of the Gaza Strip and Iran's ability to fund Hezbollah and pose "the greatest threat to America and Israel and the Middle East in a generation."
"That's the Bush-McCain record on protecting this country. Those are the failed policies that John McCain wants to double down on."
While the recent exchange between Obama and McCain, due to Bush´s implicit criticism of Obama´s approach to foreign policy, is highly political in nature, is does provide a window into how an Obama and a McCain would deal with leaders of other nations.
Citizens for Global Solutions believes that even speaking to our "enemies" – as McCain has criticized and Obama has endorsed -- is a necessity. History has proven this to be an effective tool for many U.S. Presidents, as Obama recently pointed out. Defending his longheld position that he would talk to America's adversaries, Obama said Ronald Reagan spoke to Gorbachev, Nixon spoke to Mao and John F. Kennedy held talks with Khrushchev.
"I mean, think about it. Iran, Cuba, Venezuela - these countries are tiny compared to the Soviet Union," Obama noted. "They don't pose a serious threat to us the way the Soviet Union posed a threat to us. And yet we were willing to talk to the Soviet Union."
In this area, McCain may need to take a broader, more cooperative view of today´s interconnected world. By only talking with those who agree with us, could lead to a lack of understanding of others in nations who produce and share the same resources we all need to leave a healthy and peaceful world for future generations.
By capturing the Oregon primary, Obama has now garnered a majority of pledged delegates for the Democratic Party´s nomination. It is expected that enough super delegates will push him over the top and officially nominate him at the party´s convention in Colorado in August, thus providing him a shorter adjective – minus the "presumptive."
With Obama on one side of the ring, his fellow "presumptive" partner, Senator John McCain (R-AZ), is on the other. These two candidates will ensure many things between now and November: One, a sitting Member of Congress will be elected president for the first time since 1960; our new president will either have been born on foreign soil (McCain was born in Panama, where his father was in the military) or have a father who was born in Kenya; and, they will certainly look at global cooperative issues and foreign policy much different than those pronounced by then-Governor George W. Bush when he ran for president in 2000.
Strange as it may seem, eight years ago Bush´s foreign policy plans hinged on building a stronger economic and political relationship with Latin America, especially Mexico, and reducing U.S. involvement in small-scale military engagements in general, and "nation building" in particular. When he took office 2001, he inherited a nation at peace, with a record budget surplus.
When Obama or McCain takes the oath of office next January, the new president will inherit a major to-do list. They – like Richard Nixon -- will take office on Day One with our nation at war. They will contend with America´s standing around the world in decline, questions about our use of torture, genocide in Darfur, fraying relations with international institutions and insufficient efforts to halt nuclear proliferation.
DIPLOMACY:
The stark differences in this area came to the forefront in recent days between Senators Obama and McCain. Obama has consistently said, "We need to rediscover the power of diplomacy. So I said very early on in this campaign that I will meet not just with our friends but with our enemies, not just the leaders I like, but leaders I don't."
This stance, one well thought out and needed during turbulent times, was brought into the midst of the campaign, not by McCain or even Obama…but President Bush, who last Thursday at the Israeli Knesset in Jerusalem, proclaimed: "Some seem to believe that we should negotiate with the terrorists and radicals, as if some ingenious argument will persuade them." After a reference to Nazi tanks rolling into Poland, the president continued: "We have an obligation to call this what it is - the false comfort of appeasement."
McCain jumped on Bush´s comments, and called out Obama on Friday. McCain questioned why Obama would ever consider meeting with Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
"I have some news for Senator Obama: Talking, not even with soaring rhetoric, in unconditional meetings with the man who calls Israel a 'stinking corpse' and arms terrorists who kill Americans will not convince Iran to give up its nuclear program. It is reckless to suggest that unconditional meetings will advance our interests.
"It would be a wonderful thing if we lived in a world where we don't have enemies. But that is not the world we live in, and until Senator Obama understands that reality, the American people have every reason to doubt whether he has the strength, judgment and determination to keep us safe," he added.
Obama fired back. "If George Bush and John McCain want to have a debate about protecting the United States of America, that is a debate that I'm happy to have anytime, anyplace, and that is a debate I will win because George Bush and John McCain have a lot to answer for."
Obama continued with a critique of Bush's foreign policy record, in an effort to attach his opponent McCain to several years of failed foreign policy. His list of grievances included a war fought on the premise of weapons of mass destruction that were never found, the failure to capture Osama bin Laden and turning Iran into the "greatest beneficiary" of the Iraq war. He said McCain will "need to answer" for a strengthened al-Qaeda leadership, Hamas's control of the Gaza Strip and Iran's ability to fund Hezbollah and pose "the greatest threat to America and Israel and the Middle East in a generation."
"That's the Bush-McCain record on protecting this country. Those are the failed policies that John McCain wants to double down on."
While the recent exchange between Obama and McCain, due to Bush´s implicit criticism of Obama´s approach to foreign policy, is highly political in nature, is does provide a window into how an Obama and a McCain would deal with leaders of other nations.
Citizens for Global Solutions believes that even speaking to our "enemies" – as McCain has criticized and Obama has endorsed -- is a necessity. History has proven this to be an effective tool for many U.S. Presidents, as Obama recently pointed out. Defending his longheld position that he would talk to America's adversaries, Obama said Ronald Reagan spoke to Gorbachev, Nixon spoke to Mao and John F. Kennedy held talks with Khrushchev.
"I mean, think about it. Iran, Cuba, Venezuela - these countries are tiny compared to the Soviet Union," Obama noted. "They don't pose a serious threat to us the way the Soviet Union posed a threat to us. And yet we were willing to talk to the Soviet Union."
In this area, McCain may need to take a broader, more cooperative view of today´s interconnected world. By only talking with those who agree with us, could lead to a lack of understanding of others in nations who produce and share the same resources we all need to leave a healthy and peaceful world for future generations.